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MLK Garden Log
Below is a log of gardening workdays by the Carrboro Community Gardening Coalition at the MLK garden. Saturday April 2, 2011 With Cindy leading the way, more efforts were made to e-radicate weeds, esp. the wire grass! Now's the time to pursue the roots just as far as possible and REMOVE them; chopping them is a sorcerer's apprentice solution. Beds B15, B19, and B26 (flowers) were deeply weeded, as well as A1 (flowers). Plantings: B19 was planted with xplanted kale. B15 was planted (Mon) with Pontiac red potatoes. B25 recv'd a few more feet of those potatoes on Mon as well. Time to admire the asparagus, really showing well in its three beds. And harvesting of over-wintered beets and lettuce gave reward for labors. Pls admire Justin's garlic in A7. New seedlings of chard, lettuce, radishes, Yukon-Gold potatoes are looking good. The place is looking more like a garden! Lots of prep needed to get beds ready for xplanting summer seedlings, perhaps 4/23 and 4/30. And we need to get fence up for peas to climb and find bamboo for tomato support. Any knowledgable pruners of raspberries and blackberries? We'll send a note to all later in the week. Bob W Saturday March 26, 2011 Here's a brief summary of what we did in the garden: *work started at 8:30, anticipating rain later in the day *prepped and planted A17 (peas), 1/2 of B20 (xplanted lettuce and kale), middle third of B19 (arugula and purple/green mustards), A10 (dill, parsley, cilantro) *planted 4 fig tree transplants. 3 in the orchard and 1 by the cistern. *early weeding of A16, A20, B10, B11 *1st potato has appeared - Yukon Gold; several asparagus now showing; peas, radishes, carrots, and greens are up. *Beds B22 and B26 both have irises in them. These beds should be checked/prepped for flowers. 2nd half of B24 prep for flowers started. -justin Saturday March 19, 2011 We had about 10-12 people stop in throughout the day. Bob W got the day started as QB around 10am and I took the second half of the day finishing up around 3pm. What we did: * A4 got planted with Kennebec potatoes *A11 got planted with lettuce and spinach *B7 got prepped and planted with carrots and beets- *B14 got prepped and planted with beets (2 kinds) and kohlrabi *B25 got 6-7 feet planted in Kennebec potatoes. The rest of the bed still needs prep *Took a soil sample from A11 before planting. I still need to find the best way to get it to Raleigh for testing. I'm thinking of holding onto it til we take a couple more samples next week and sending all together. *More wire grass was removed from the secondary path in the B section, and black plastic was laid down. *Asparagus is beginning to pop up. I can't remember exactly what our plan is for harvesting (see wiki for minutes from Jan meeting), but I believe we will harvest lightly this season, leaving at least 50% to grow to full so the plants can continue to grow and store energy. We can harvest full in another year or 2. If treated properly these plants can last many decades. If anyone wants to water the new plantings feel free and just drop a note to the listserve if possible. We can setup a better system in the future. Please water the 2 flats in B-3 also. Sorry Bob, I got a little carried away with the carrots and beets and didn't get any kale planted. Lets plan to plant several greens this saturday. And also get some herbs going! -justin Monday May 2, 2009 We got a lot done today, lots of fine folk showed up, maybe 12 or 13 people. I bought 8 tomato and 8 pepper starts, and Bill Bracey brought in another 6 or so, he will bring more next week and so all the "holes" will be filled. We planted A4 and A5 in "Common Beans" which I hope are bush beans, and a pole bean from the seed stash. Half of A6 got Natalie's 4 cucumber starts, the other half still has last fall's lettuce. A7 got the 8 pepper starts, 4 bell pepper and 4 jalapeno, the rest of the bed got 3 varieties of oldish okra seeds, broadcast thickly so hopefully some will germinate. A9, supposed to be "long beans", got some pole beans because I don't know what "long beans" are. It still needs a trellis, as do the pole beans in A4 or A5 (they're marked) B5 got watermelon that Bob bought. Sugar babies. B14 is a mix of summer squash and zucchini. Half of B20 is butternut squash and some orange winter squash in case there wasn't enough seed. Several more beds were prepared but not seeded because I didn't know what to plant in them. I will leave that to the Reign of Alexander the August-born, for he will administer the garden next week. So, we watered, thinned the cilantro, harvested peas, strawberries, chard, lettuce, sorrel, dandelions, lambs quarters, arugula, we removed all of the fall spinach (it was bolting and things needed to go in those same beds). Water was transferred to the garden cistern and the water system is ready for imminent rain. We have assured that it will rain by watering all the crops. :) There is only a 50% chance today, tonight and tomorrow, but it would be great if it rains. ~Liane Monday March 9, 2009 Vimala and I watered everything, and filled up the buckets a bit, but forgot about the cilantro. ~Liane Saturday March 7, 2009 We prepared many beds, as well as planting chard, parsley, kale, slow-bolt cilantro, regular cilantro, and beets. The seeds were watered, but it would be good to have them watered twice more during the upcoming week. We harvested some lettuce. It would be best to harvest only the outer leaves in the future, until it bolts. ~Liane Sunday, February 15, 2009 I came by in bike clothes and watered all the beds we planted in yesterday. ~Liane Sunday, January 11, 2009 Bill and I came by and tested out a way to kill the fire ants by sprinkling a mixture of instant grits and sugar on them. They will theoretically feed it to the Queen, and she will explode. Any ants that eat it will also explode. We also noticed that the carrots and spinach had been badly chewed by something, we're guessing it's rabbit(s). So, maybe they have found a way under the fence. We harvested a lot of the carrots with no tops, and I took one of the lettuces. We looked at the repaired well house, and looked for more fire ant hills, didn't see any. Saturday, November 22 I tried my hand at being Queen Bee. There were about 10 people there on and off. * Harvested: Daikon and greens, lettuce, mizuna, parsley. * Dug several beds (4?), leaving the grass clumps to dry out before shaking out the soil. * Several beds were mulched with leaves which were recently delivered. * Watered some strawberries which were moved to the strawberry bed. Liane Saturday, September 29 It was a beautiful, breezy, and sunny day just perfect for weeding and chatting with friends... * Harvested: Okra, peppers, tomatoes, radishes, basil, eggplant. * Deadheaded flowers. * Weeded and mulched exposed beds. * Weeded and mulched starts. * Water brought to the garden from Phil’s house. Last of rain water catchment water used. * Harvest lesson learned from experience: Mitzuna should be harvested such that younger smaller central leaves remain, otherwise plants most likely will die.